Friday, January 26, 2007

2007 Bloggies Update:Ack! Well, It Was a Good Try...

Shut out! The final nominations for the 2007 Bloggies came out... and this blog did NOT make it to the final 5 in "Best Sports Blog," despite your best efforts to rack up the volume of nominations (which you did... I saw a list of 30 semifinalists, based on volume of nominations, and I was right in there... which means that the official judges checked out the blog and... rejected it... ah well.)

The five finalists are, in no particular order: The Sports Frog, ArseBlog, Deadspin, Kissing Suzy Kolber and Up in Alaska. (All worthy finalists, but apparently the value of volume of user comments per post was discounted heavily. I thought that would help this blog stand out -- along with the usual commentary blather.)

I encourage you to vote, but mostly, I wanted to offer my huge and sincere thanks to everyone for going through the effort to nominate the blog. To be honest, that was a way bigger honor than any actual award. It meant a ton to me. (Meanwhile: Next year!)

Oh, do you want me to handicap the race, too? Like salt in the wound, my friends...

It's interesting: KSK won the 2006 Weblog Awards for Best Sports Blog (which is different than the Bloggies...sort of like the Golden Globes versus the Oscars) in what many observers felt was a huge upset over Deadspin. Like "Shakespeare in Love" over "Saving Private Ryan" huge.

The Bloggies are a little more mainstream. Because of that, I expect Deadspin to win this one, beating out KSK. (When Deadspin is considered "mainstream" and others are "fringe," you know the sports blog world has moved along.)

Then we'd be left with a 1-1 tie on the awards circuit and desperate for a thrilling rubber match. I may have to get involved in (hmm...set up?) that one-on-one showdown. We'll see. With its batallion of crazed (and growing) readership, KSK could pull off the shocking "double." And I don't mean a Smoot-style double. (But THAT would earn them my vote. Especially if they can include some video.)

26 comments:

To be fair, why would the volume of comments be indicative of anything, Dan? Don't you manipulate the comment volume by asking a question of commenters? They are answer your question, not necessarily commenting on the blog.(that isn't a complaint, just an observation)

I'm not really surprised you weren't a finalist. You're playing a different game. Without pictures of 24/7 dedicated blogging, it's just name recognition and an orphaned community of dedicated ex-chatters.

I prefer your website, it's safe for work. But yes, it isn't as consistently funny, either.

My one recommendation, since you're into community involvement and no one else seems to offer this (ok, I have no clue but still) is to set up massive chats like ESPN.com. I think that's what some people expected when you left ESPN.com

I mean, you haven't been at this very long, either. Maybe you're just hitting your stride or need the right partership or something.

Wow,I didn't realize how much I missed out on in 1998. I was with the Navy on a tiny Island in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia B.I.O.T., British Indian Ocean Territory.

Internet service was spotty at best. Anyone who has been in the service overseas knows AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio/Television Service) Warmly reffered to as A Farts, is absolutly useless. I always assumed Saving Private Ryan won.

And also my opinion, this blog, however informative, lacks the irreverency of a Deadspin or KSK. Dan is a good analyst when his own biases don't get in the way, but's not funny by any stretch.

That being said, there's a lot to like about the blog -- mainly the Quickie style rundown. You would have to sepnd 30 mins on espn.com to get the amount of info Dan lays out from the previous night/day in sports.

"That being said, there's a lot to like about the blog -- mainly the Quickie style rundown. You would have to sepnd 30 mins on espn.com to get the amount of info Dan lays out from the previous night/day in sports."

Agreed, Between Dan and Drudge I get my Sports and News in half the time it would normally take

Dan, i think your biggest problem is the blandness of the blog and the lack of anything but words. Building up your sidebar and adding some pictures to your posts would certainly improve your chances next year.

I know you tried to convert to a custom web address a couple months ago and failed but you need to find someone where you live to meet you and show you how to add some kool bits to the blog.

The one thing that people forget is that Will Leitch is probably responsible for KSK winning the Weblog award and putting KSK out there.

Personally the guys at KSK absolutely SLAY me and I'll vote for them everytime, but anyone who knows anything about the sports blogging community knows that Will is the Godfather hands down. I don't think he needs an award to prove that.

Benigni was excellent in Life is Beautiful. He's famed in Italy for being a clown in the Jim Carrey mold, and that role asked a lot more of him--which he delivered. It was an awesome movie. It has the advantage of being a non-depressing (in fact, surprisingly human) Holocaust movie; people were so surprised by that that the Oscar for Benigni was practically inevitable. The best in this department (holocause movies with a human touch) is still Europa, Europa, a true story about a Jewish kid who hides from the SS by joining the Hitler Youth--the film has a wonderfully bitter and ironic sense of humor. But that came out before Hollywood decided it was OK to give major Oscars to foreign-language films.

Saving Private Ryan was an oddball of a movie--the first two-thirds of it were unbelievable, and then the thing sort of abruptly ran out of steam, and became totally hokey, when they finally found Matt Damon.

No, the worst year in recent memory for Oscars was 1994, when Forrest Gump was worse than all four of the other nominees. Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction were two of them, I believe--at the moment I forget what the other two were, but you can look it up.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.